Men’s lacrosse: Patton (Penncrest) named co-captain at Elizabethtown

Head coach Terry Corcoran announced that five seniors have been selected as Elizabethtown captains for the upcoming 2012 season. Dan Patton (Media, Pa./Penncrest), Brendan Corcoran, Shawn Corcoran, Derek Neiheiser (Wernersville, Pa./Conrad Weiser), and Brian Wenger (Kingsville, Md./Loyola Blakefield) will carry the responsibility of leading their Blue Jay teammates on and off the field this spring.

Patton enters his final year on a strong note. The midfielder netted a career-high three goals last season on only 15 shots. He has provided the team quality minutes as a reserve, playing in 27 games over the prior three seasons.

Brendan Corcoran (Hershey, Pa./Western Reserve Academy) has 25 wins in net for Elizabethtown over the last three years. During his tenure with the team, Corcoran has acquired a career save-percentage of .586, stopping 304 shots. His best season was the 2010 campaign, when he won 12 games and turned away 139 shots to lead the Blue Jays to a 10-1 mark in the conference and the MAC’s No. 1 seed in the league playoffs.

Staying in the family, Brendan’s brother, Shawn Corcoran (Hershey, Pa./Hershey), is coming off a junior season in which he led the team in overall scoring. One of the best attackmen in the Middle Atlantic Conference, Shawn totaled 41 points on 29 goals and 12 assists. He scored at least one goal in a stretch of seven straight games from March 30 to April 21. His five hat tricks were second most on the team and he also amassed three four-goal games. Corcoran has 65 goals and 84 points in his career. Sixteen more points this season would make him the seventh 100-point scorer in the program’s brief 10-year history.

Neiheiser stepped into an increased roll last spring and delivered. The Wernersville, Pa. native put together a 15-game point-scoring streak after being held off the scoresheet in the season opener. He finished the year with 29 points, shattering his previous career best of five. Neiheiser was the Blue Jays fourth leading scorer, but the midfielder did more than just create offense. He won 60 percent of his face-offs (51 of 85), filling in nicely when then-senior Brent Campbell, the team’s primary face-off man, was sidelined with an injury. Neiheiser was second on the team in man-up goals with four and fourth on the team in ground balls with 47.

The only captain from E-town’s defense, Wenger has solidified the unit. For three seasons Wenger had a familiar face alongside him in Mike Kenneally . The two were high school teammates at Loyola Blakefield in Maryland. This year, with the graduation of Kenneally, the onus is on Wenger to lead a defense that surrendered the third fewest goals per game in the MAC last season. Amongst Wenger’s career highlights statistically are 38 ground balls and nine caused turnovers.

Elizabethtown opens its 2012 season, one filled with a number of strong opponents, Feb. 25 at Shenandoah. The Blue Jays’ will return home to Wolf Field for the first time in two seasons on March 3 against Thiel. E-town played all of its home games off campus last spring while new turf was installed at its on-campus home.